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Hartland Speedway wants to more than double its size

Jennifer Eberbach
Published 10:31 a.m. ET Aug. 17, 2015

Speedway plans to demolish its gas station in Hartland Township and rebuild a much larger one, which would also have a Speedy Cafe with made-to-order food.(Photo: Rendering submitted to Hartland Township)

Speedway plans to demolish and rebuild a much larger gas station on M-59 just west of the U.S. 23 interchange and east of Old U.S. 23 in Hartland Township.

The expanded gas station and convenience store would feature a new Speedy Cafe. Made-to-order food — think burgers, breakfast sandwiches and pizza — would be prepared in an on-site kitchen, and there would be a seating area for people to sit and eat.

Eighteen fueling stations are planned, whereas the existing gas station has 12 pumps.

The Speedway would more than double in size—from 2,350 square feet to 6,100 square feet.

More parking would be added in front of the Fountain Square shopping plaza, which includes restaurants such as Black Rock Bar & Grill and Cottage Inn Pizza, as well as a variety of other businesses.

Speedway purchased vacant land where a Mobil gas station once stood for the parking lot expansion.

Before it could happen, the project must be approved by Hartland Township officials.

Hartland Township Planning Department director David Campbell said “concerns about traffic” at the heavily-traveled intersections of M-59 with U.S. 23 and also Old U.S. 23 are inevitable.

“There are a lot of cars going every which way, and it’s probably always going to be that way because of the highways,” Campbell said.

Although he anticipates that the larger Speedway will “increase the number of vehicles coming in there,” he said it would be “an overall improvement.”

One big change, Speedway and the shopping plaza will share a driveway off M-59.

Right now, if someone wants to get gas and then pull into the shopping plaza to eat or shop, they have to pull on and off M-59.

Campbell said that cars pulling on and off M-59 creates a greater potential for accidents.

An island within the driveway will stop people from taking left turns out onto M-59.

With the addition of the parking lot, “we know there is not going to be a new traffic generator on that property in the near future,” like a coffee shop popping up there, Campbell said.